World Cup 2014: Racism rips into European soccer

by Christophe SilveyBigotry is not just property of the NBA as a banana thrown at Brazilian player Daniel Alves spawned the hashtag #weareallmonkeys

May 2, 2014 6:20 am

While the NBA’s Donald Sterling saga has been spewing out like the rotted whale’s entrails that the Guardian has been posting on their home page, the soccer/football world has been dealing with a disgusting racial incident of their own. Barcelona right back and Brazilian international Daniel Alves was the target of a thrown banana while he prepared to take a corner kick during Sunday’s Barcelona 3-2 La Liga victory at Valencian club Villareal’s El Madrigal stadium. The banana missed, but was seen by Alves, who picked it up, peeled it, and took a bite before taking his kick.

Instagram captures and vines of the incident have quickly gone viral, initially generating an Instagram response from Alves’ Barca and Brazil teammate Neymar, who posted a picture of himself also eating a banana with the title, “We Are All Monkeys.” This in turn has inspired a flood of Twitter posts with the hashtag #weareallmonkeys by fellow international football stars such as Sergio Aguero, Hulk and Robert Lewandowski, bad-boy Mario Balotelli, the even more controversial PFA-winner Luis Suarez (who served a 10-match ban for a racial slur last season), Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Ukrainian boxer (and brother of Vitali) Wladimir Klitschko.

Most recently, amidst ongoing investigations and conjecture following an admission by Neymar (who has also been the target of banana throwing in Spain) that his response was ‘prepared,’ Villareal (their ‘Yellow Submarine’ nickname a bit ironic in this instance) have found the banana-thrower (who may actually have ties to their youth club) and instituted a lifetime ban of their own.